Fruity

It must be a good year for fruit. I have never seen so much fruit in my garden.  Well I only grow strawberries and raspberries, but there are loads of them.  I keep thinking this will be the last good picking I have of them.  Then a day or two later I go up to the top of the garden and there they are again, waiting to be picked. Then there's the allotment-- gooseberries, blackcurrants and rhubarb.

In the kitchen there are bowls of strawberries in the fridge waiting to be eaten, trays of raspberries and blackcurrants in the freezer, and more fruit already bagged up. I'm considering buying another freezer for allotment produce.  I think though that I really need to get into jam making, that is the answer I'm sure.

Compost bins

It's funny how sometimes things which seem terribly boring to some people can make you feel really happy. This week for me it has been compost bins. Yes really!  My husband who is incredibly good at making things has made some compost bins for our allotment on plot 8.  I'm happy because, I've now got some compost bins, which is something every plot needs and they have been made for very little cost as most of the materials were lying around on both of our allotments. I'm also pleased because it has tidied up the bottom end of our plot and it's another stage in the progress of the allotment.

We now have somewhere to throw our kitchen and garden waste, although we do have bins on plot 10b and in the garden, but it seems to me that once you get into doing compost making you need more and more space for it. So I don't just have compost bins I have manure bins too because we have a supply of manure regularly dumped nearby which we can all help ourselves to. I also now have a  leaf bin and I won't have a problem filling that either.

What simple things are making you feel happy?

Carrots

We have carrots and no root fly, that is amazing.  OK they were small carrots, but they made a good meal.  They were grown in a big tub started off in the polytunnel, then later when the weather got very warm brought outside and covered in fleece. After about three years of failures with carrots due to root fly to be able to pull up some perfect specimens was great. We have more in tubs and some in the ground so we are nurturing them all carefully. Could this be the year of the carrot?

Loving my garden

Although the allotments are  taking up a lot of  time at the moment, when I'm not there I'm enjoying the garden. Much as I love being down at the allotment, when the weather is as wonderful as it is at the moment, I much prefer to be in the garden. Sitting in the garden listening to the birds singing, watching the bees buzzing amongst the flowers, feeling the warmth of the sunshine on my face is quite relaxing.

The garden is looking good even though I haven't done much gardening for weeks.  This week I have been cutting back the early flowering plants which have now gone over.  The alchemilla mollis is still looking good and tumbling all over the place; the blues and pinks of the hardy geraniums are just starting to fade and the deep pink knautia macedonica, astrantia and the blue veronica are taking over along with the yellow lysimachia. The campanula are looking dainty and delicate, I can't decide which I like best, the blue or the white, they are both quite lovely. I am loving the giant scabious which I bought from a plant sale two years ago. This is the first year it has really flowered and grown to its full height. It is competing with a thalictrum of massive proportions.  I didn't realise how tall the scabious would grow and perhaps shouldn't have put them together, but I am quite liking them both.  The bees seem to love them too.

The scented seating area is a lovely place to sit in the evenings when it is still warm. There are quite a few fragrances which waft over from other parts of the garden as well as those placed in that area. Next to the bench is a philadelphus and behind is a row of lavender which gently brushes the back of my neck releasing its relaxing perfume as I sit there. I bought a pot of pinks the other week and planted them in a big tub next to the bench, they smell divine. Also next to the bench is a big pot with three scented geraniums which are new to the garden this year. I'm quite liking the soft trailing foliage and the pale, delicate flowers, which are so different from the big bold flowers of the normal pot geraniums.  Honeysuckle is growing  well around the garden. One is clambering up the apple tree, another over the gate and another has got slightly out of control and is growing madly through a choisya, but I can't bear to cut it back yet, I want to enjoy the flowers and the smell of it for a while.

What are you loving about your garden at the moment?